If a game could be tried for crimes against humanity, Super R-Type for the SNES would be the first to stand trial. It's the most viciously, sadistically difficult and unforgiving videogame I've ever encountered. Essentially a port of the arcade R-Type II with a short, largely extraneous level tacked on the front, Super R-Type is ruined completely by Irem's bizarre and irrational decision to exclude any restart points on any of its lengthy stages.
Whether you're thirty seconds in to a level or you've managed to battle and swear your way to the area boss, one tiny mistake and you're dumped right back to the beginning. Super R-Type will have even the most ardent shoot-em-up fan tearing at his (or her) clothes and hair with anguish.
The SNES' usual slowdown problems when more than a handful of sprites appear onscreen only add to the game's woes.
Bitterly disappointing, and arguably the worst entry in R-Type's otherwise illustrious canon.
2008-04-20 @ 23:12